California

The Fresh Prince of Bad Air

Just two weeks after their births, infants in the Los Angeles area have been exposed to more pollution than the U.S. government considers acceptable over a lifetime, according to a report released this week by the Washington, D.C.-based National Environmental Trust. The report, which looked at pollution levels in the L.A. region, the San Francisco […]

Clothes Call

In yet another trend-setting environmental move by California, Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed into law this week a bill requiring old, inefficient washing machines to be replaced with water-efficient ones by 2007. New washers must now meet a standard of using 9.5 gallons of water to wash one cubic foot of laundry — well below […]

In the Drink

In other news from the Golden State, regulators in California are reviving a campaign to clean up perchlorate, a Cold War-era pollutant that has been showing up in drinking water supplies across the country. Since the 1950s, the substance has been used as an oxidizer in rockets, munitions, and fireworks. It was not considered particularly […]

Rubber the Right Way

In other news from the halls of justice, a different federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the U.S. government must foot the bill for cleaning up hazardous waste stemming from a World War II effort to produce synthetic rubber. During the war, most of the natural-rubber exporters were under Japanese control, so demand was high […]

An excerpt from The New Economy of Nature by Gretchen C. Daily and Katherine Ellison

In a cattle pasture south of downtown Napa, Calif., a clarinet, flute, and bass guitar strike up a jazzy version of "Up a Lazy River." About sixty people, if you count the rubberneckers wandering over from a nearby retirement house, gather in the midsummer sun. Two young women in flowing dresses open paper boxes to release orange clouds of monarch butterflies. A few dogs wander through the crowd.

In the Drink

The gasoline additive MTBE, a known carcinogen, has already leaked into 48 public wells that provide water to hundreds of thousands of Californians, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis of state data. The additive is leaking from 1,189 underground storage tanks within 1,000 feet of public wells or drinking water aquifers, threatening the water […]

Another Alternative Energy Source in California

Species to be bred in captivity and released back to the wild

In the latest initiative by developers to go green, a consortium of builders has created the “Condo Restoration Fund.” Condos, which once ranged freely over the California landscape, are now being displaced by red-legged frogs, pocket mice, giant kangaroo rats, and other ridiculous creatures, said Diggem Fast, the president of the fund. Can these condos […]

Deregulation in California didn't help consumers, or the environment

As blackouts roll through California, the New Hampshire Supreme Court cleared the way for electrical restructuring, while a Vermont utility assured legislators that what is happening out West can’t happen here. Why not? The powers that don’t have to be. As I hear people try to explain California’s electricity problem, I wonder whether anyone really […]